Right-hander José Soriano shook off a comebacker that hit off his upper right chest in the first inning to get through five scoreless frames against the Rays on Saturday, but exited after throwing just 76 pitches. After walking Yandy Díaz on seven pitches to open the game, Soriano threw a first-pitch sinker to Jonathan Aranda, who lined it back off Soriano’s chest near his right shoulder. Soriano recovered to throw out Aranda at first base and remained in the game after throwing a few warmup pitches. Soriano got out of the early jam by getting Cedric Mullins to ground out to short before striking out Junior Caminero with a 3-2 knuckle-curve out of the zone. It set the tone for a strong showing from Soriano, who scattered three hits and two walks with five strikeouts in an 8-0 win over the Rays on Saturday night at Angel Stadium. Soriano improved to 8-4 with a 2.79 ERA in 15 starts, while the Angels have now won 12 of their last 20 games. Soriano said he was physically fine but sustained a minor tweak in his leg while trying to avoid the comebacker, which also affected him. “It feels good,” Soriano said. “I wanted to go deeper, but after the issue I had in the first inning, it was tough to go farther than that, but I'm glad that I could at least take it to the fifth inning. It hit me right there in the chest but the problem was my leg. A little sore and getting tight every inning.” But Soriano's velocity was down, and he uncharacteristically avoided throwing his sinker, as he threw it just nine times compared to 25 splitters, 22 knuckle-curves and 17 four-seamers. His pitches were all roughly 1.5 mph lower than his season average. But he used a splitter to induce a double play from Díaz to end his night in the fifth.
